MySQL goes from 'open source database' to 'database'

Every year at the annual MySQL conference there has been a slight, but noticable, shift in the overall audience from the year before. Comparing this year’s attendees with the ones from 3 or 4 years ago the differences are more significant. 4 years ago the attendee’s coming to the Pentaho booth understood databases and open source, but did not necessarily understand business intelligence. This year, for the first time, I encountered people who understood databases and business intelligence, but did not understand anything about open source.

This is progress. If the MySQL conference has graduated from an ‘open source database conference’ to a ‘database conference’ it implies that MySQL is now not an ‘open source database’, but a ‘database’. Whilst, yes, it is still open source, the interesting thing here is the view point of the mainstream market. That is, MySQL is a mainstream product who’s differentiating factor is not the manner in which it is created.

Congrats, MySQL, on making it to the other side.

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